Question

How to edit another users registry HKEY_CURRENT_USER via the command line

Asked by: jshannonhouse

I am writing a script to harden a standalone system and I want to, as the administrator, edit a registry keys of a specific limited user.  I am using reg.exe to edit the keys in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, but can't figure out how to load the hive of the limited user so that I can edit those HKEY_CURRENT_USER keys that apply when the limited user is logged in.  I have found sloutions that talk about how to use regedit to do so; however, I am confused by those because when I try to follow the instructions to load the hive via regedit, File-Load Hive is greyed out when I have HKEY_CURRENT_USER selected as the hive to load.

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Asked On
2009-09-14 at 19:44:43ID24731668
Tags

Windows XP

,

registry edit

Topic

Windows XP Operating System

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Answers

 

by: jshannonhousePosted on 2009-09-14 at 21:08:31ID: 25331641

I found my answer...
1) Load the limited user's ntuser.dat file using reg.exe.  Where you load it to HKLM or HKU is arbitrary as you will simply edit it there and once unloaded it will appear in the user's HKEY_CURRENT_USER (once they login).
2) Then edit the key relative to where you loaded it in the registry structure.
3) Unload it.

:: Load the Registry Hive of the StudentUser
SET USER_DIR=StudentUser
FOR /F "usebackq" %%i IN (`hostname`) DO SET HOST_NAME=%%i
ECHO "Detected hostname: %HOST_NAME%"
if exist "C:\Documents and Settings\StudentUser.%HOST_NAME%\" SET USER_DIR=StudentUser.%HOST_NAME%
 
ECHO "Loading Registry hive for user %USER_DIR%"
reg.exe load HKLM\StudentUser "C:\Documents and Settings\%USER_DIR%\ntuser.dat"
 
::Don't allow apps from the All Users Profile
reg.exe add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\StudentUser\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer /f /v NoCommonGroups /t REG_DWORD /d 1
 
:: Whatever else you want to do.....
 
:: Unload the Limited User's Hive
ECHO "Unload the limited user's hive."
reg.exe unload HKLM\LimitedUser
ECHO "Done!"

                                              
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